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The bulk of my research in the past has been devoted to the economic and legal history of the Hellenistic world. Given the nature of the survival of ancient documents, that inevitably means that I focus on Egypt and documentary papyri found there. In the last couple of years I have begun a new research agenda that is dedicated to understanding how to link human and natural archives to tell a richer story of the past. This has taken me into the very exciting area of Paleoclimatology. I am especially intrigued by ice core research, both because of the nature of data generated by this field and because it intersects with my interest in climbing.

​For the fabulously fun papyrology project with Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Berlin and Tokai University in Japan, follow this link

To learn more about climatology and climate sciences, I highly recommend the podcast of Michael White, the Climate Science editor at Nature. The podcast is called Forecast, and you will learn a lot (and enjoy yourself) by listening,

​Announcing a new book series with Palgrave Macmillan on Ancient Economies. Click here for details

A cold morning at high camp, Mt Bona, Alaska. Summit is behind the peak you see behind me, and behind the clouds, Mt Churchill, the source of the White River Ash. You would not believe the lenticular that formed above it just after this shot was taken. My interest in climbing, in Paleoclimatology and Ancient History have come together in surprising ways!

P. Edfu 8, courtesy The University of Warsaw Papyrology Institute. The text is a petition to the Ptolemaic king announcing the invention of a new "machine" that will be able to irritate "the whole of the Thebaid" and save Egypt from famine. Dating the text to the mid-3d century BCE fits the volcanically perturbed Nile, and the introduction of a series of irrigation machines.